We had a look around the BP Portrait exhibition in the National Portrait gallery

Crochet!

Then it was time to head off along Tottenham Court Road for the photo shoot. It was raining pretty hard by then.

A 'photo-shoot' sounds so glamourous doesn't it but the reality was somewhat different. ARUK was 1 of 20 charities chosen for the event and so there were representatives from all the other charities there as well as us. We'd got absolutely soaked on the walk there as it had been raining really heavily for several hours. I'd been asked to bring my running gear and the scarf so the first thing I had to do was get changed (in a teeny-weeny toilet). Here's my 'selfie' to show what happens to curly hair in damp weather - it sticks out!!!

The studio where the photos were taken was small and their offices were spread over 3 floors. There wasn't a waiting room so everybody lined the 4 sets of stairs whilst we waited to go in.

Daphne the trainee guide dog stole the show. She was so well behaved. Her trainer told us it costs over £30,000 to train one dog.

We went right to the top of the building and found an empty studio to sit in.

We waited and waited. They told us they were running about 15 minutes late. 1 hour later the photos started. It was literally a case of in and out as they only took about 30 seconds each. We had been promised a chat with Angela at the end as her mother suffered from vascular dementia and so we hoped we could connect and get her support for ARUK. She was so pressed for time that we only managed a very quick chat and her involvement was perfunctory so we were a bit disappointed. Never mind, the photo turned out well and will be good for publicity.

When we left it was still pouring with rain so we got soaked again. Mike's back started to hurt from all the walking so we had to slow down, missed our train by a few minutes and had to wait another hour for the next one. Whilst we were waiting I tried to do my usual cryptic crosswords and sudoku but was struggling with them.

When we arrived home I realised I'd left my jacket on the train (I'd hung it up to dry) so I tried to phone the station where the train terminated as I knew it wouldn't have arrived by then and I thought perhaps someone could have rescued my jacket for me. Oh no, I couldn't get a phone number for the station and had to go via the national enquiry service to get to the lost property department who informed me that it would take at least 10 days for my jacket to be returned to a depot 20 miles away (that is, if it hadn't been stolen).

At that point I decided that my absent-mindedness meant I was developing dementia and burst into tears. The perfect end to a perfect day!

About Me

I enjoy many crafts including knitting and crochet but I also love running which I use to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK in memory of my mum (please read her story below to see why it is so important to me). So far I've raised over £50,000 towards research into this devastating disease.
I ran my first marathon in 2004 at the age of 48. In 2007 I celebrated my 50th birthday by running a series of 5 marathons and 2 ultras. I wanted to do something special at the London marathon to get publicity for ARUK - a friend remarked that I should "act my age and stay at home with my knitting!" So I took my knitting with me to became the first person to knit whilst running a marathon and set the Guinness World Record for "The longest Scarf Knitted Whilst Running a Marathon"! I was also the first person to crochet whilst running a marathon. I have now run 120 marathons (4 whilst knitting, 2 whilst crocheting to set the GWR for "Longest crochet chain whilst running a marathon"). I achieved my 100th marathon 7 months before my 60th birthday in 2017 and also completed 52 marathons in 52 weeks in the process.

Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.